I Know That I Know Nothing
by Masquerading as Quality
Summary: "Scio me nihil scire." Mulan's life has always been about duty. Now, when she knows her duty, but cannot bring herself to obey it, she reconsiders her priorities. [Sleeping Warrior; Canon-compliant so far.]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This will be multi-chapter, but probably comparatively short. I just have some Sleeping Warrior emotions to deal with. Feedback would be much appreciated!

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**Chapter 1 — A Woman of Few Words**

Her life has always been about duty. She had a duty to her family, a duty to her fellow warriors, a duty to her country, a duty to a kind stranger. The only thing she can ever remember wanting for herself is to be herself...and to figure out what that entails...and she recently decided that that must be to do her duty, to honour her commitments, and not to think too much about herself.

Now, now that she knows her duty, but cannot bring herself to obey it...now she is confused. What is she, if not bound by honour? Who is she, if not perhaps quite as selfless as she would like to be?

Who is she, if she cannot ignore the pathetic love she feels in her heart, as she has countless times before, when she realizes it is wholly unreciprocated?

"Mulan?"

Mulan turns away from the window to face Princess Aurora. Aurora has always been beautiful, even dirty and sweating in a several-months-old dress that's been dragged through miles upon miles of forest, but here, on her own turf and so obviously happy and in love and comfortable in her place...here, she is radiant. It renders Mulan, who has always been a woman of few words, utterly speechless, and she merely nods her greeting and waits for whatever Aurora has come to tell or ask her.

"I'm going for a walk," says Aurora. "I wondered if you'd like to join me."

Mulan has been staying in one of the many guest rooms of Aurora's father's castle for nearly a month. She should have stayed for a week at the most. She had done her duty by then. She has done her duty to Philip and to Aurora, and now they are together and home and safe and happy. Mulan's services are no longer required. It is time for her to move on before she overstays her welcome.

She finds her voice a second too late, and the pause is awkward. "Is Prince Philip unavailable to accompany you?"

Aurora averts her eyes for a split second. Mulan gets the feeling that it means something, but she has never been very good at reading people, so she cannot imagine what. "He's asleep," says Aurora.

"In the middle of the afternoon?" Mulan's brow furrows.

Aurora smiles and shrugs. Aurora is almost never asleep. She avoids sleep when she can. When Aurora sleeps, she dreams, and when she dreams, she usually has nightmares.

"I will accompany you," says Mulan. She privately tries to convince herself that it is her duty to accompany the princess on her walk, that she may travel safely, and that she is not merely tagging along because she is pathetic.

Mulan has never visited Stefan's kingdom. Aurora assures her that it was once very beautiful—all lush, green trees and colourful wildflowers—but Mulan cannot see it. Shortly before Aurora was placed under her infamous Sleeping Curse, the evil fairy Maleficent ravaged the lands. Mulan doesn't know a lot about the whole affair, but Aurora doesn't like to talk about it, so they don't. Mulan imagines Aurora has enough people asking her countless questions. For several minutes, the only sounds between them are the snapping twigs beneath their feet as they walk.

"I thought it would be good to be home," says Aurora out of nowhere.

Mulan looks up in surprise. "But it isn't?"

Aurora is staring at her feet. "Philip tells me you have traveled far from home. Have you returned since you left?"

"Once," says Mulan. "For a short time."

Aurora looks up, wide-eyed like a doe. "What was it like?"

Mulan doesn't like to talk about her home. She doesn't like to talk very much at all, actually, but for Aurora's sake, she struggles to put the experience into words. She thinks of the day she returned from war, of her joy at seeing her family again. Then she thinks of all the things she dreaded and despised before she left—things she thought wouldn't matter to her anymore, for they would seem trivial to her by comparison to the horrors she had witnessed—and the way, once she was well and truly home again, those tiny, inconsequential things had slowly begun to seep back into her consciousness until they began chipping away at the self-assurance she had forged for herself.

"I thought I would be glad to leave it behind," she begins. "When I was away, I thought I'd be happy...overjoyed...just to make it back. When I made it back..." she shrugs. "Well, I left again."

Aurora considers her with those big, searching eyes for a moment, then looks down again. "You have a suitor there," she says.

"Had," Mulan replies with a subtle frown. She doesn't really want to talk about Shang. He is a good man, certainly, and she hates the way she feels about him. She should have been honoured to accept his marriage proposal.

"What happened?"

What happened was that Mulan acted selfishly. She had shamed her family ten times over. She turned down the best, and probably the only marriage proposal she will ever be offered. And why? Because of some imagined problem that only existed inside of Mulan's head.

"I was stupid," says Mulan.

Aurora stops walking. "Now I'm sure that isn't true," she says gravely. "What really happened?"

Mulan stops walking, as well, but she does not turn around. She closes her eyes and pools her focus in an attempt to put her ridiculous thoughts into words. "I wasn't ready to marry."

Aurora waits a moment, but when Mulan doesn't continue, she asks, "Why not?"

Mulan continues to ponder the question, which she hasn't fully answered for herself, for another minute or two, eyes still closed. "When I refused him...his proposal...he proposed..." she shakes her head. She isn't accustomed to speaking her thoughts aloud, and one thought won't come forth independent of the others. She is beginning to feel very exposed.

"My suitor proposed marriage and I refused," she tries again. "And when I refused, I thought to myself that it was because he didn't know me. In thinking that, I realized..." She frowns again and thinks a moment more before continuing. "I had traveled so far and learned so many things, and I realized I still barely knew myself."

"Well," says Aurora after a moment's silence, "that doesn't sound like stupidity."

"It was," says Mulan firmly. "I should have accepted his offer. He's a good man. I would have had a good life and my family would have been happy."

"A good life," Aurora echoes. "But is it truly a good life without someone who loves you? Really loves you...for you?"

Mulan looks up into Aurora's eyes and swallows uncomfortably. "I don't know," she says quietly. "Don't you think it's possible to be happy without love?" In response to Aurora's look of horror, Mulan amends, "Romantic love, I mean."

Aurora's brow furrows in concern. Perhaps the princess is the wrong person to ask such a question. Her life is full of people who love her, and who would continue to love her even if she acted selfishly, even if she wanted something for herself once in awhile.

"I suppose so," she says finally, but she does not seem very happy about it. "I suppose it must be." She looks down at her hands and clasps them together. "If that's what you want."

It isn't.

But Mulan's life is not about finding true love. It is not about passionate duets, memorable details, or being swept off her feet by beautiful strangers. Mulan's life is about duty. Or at least, it has always been before. If Mulan's life isn't about honour and duty anymore, then she doesn't know what she is doing here. If she doesn't know what she's doing, then she doesn't know who she is.

And if she has come no closer to learning her identity than when she left her home months or maybe a year or more ago...if she has, instead, taken a step back in this quest...then she has absolutely no idea how to proceed.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Thank you for your kind reviews! I hope you will continue to enjoy and/or share your thoughts! Thanks for reading!

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**Chapter 2 — No Need to Say Goodbye**

Sometimes Mulan almost manages to convince herself to leave.

She spends so many days seeing Philip and Aurora happy together and not doing very much in particular herself, and she thinks _it is time for me to leave_. She packs her things and she slinks silently out into the hallway in the middle of the night.

The castle's great hall is eerie when it is so empty, and here and there, Mulan can see clear signs of the extent to which it, like the entire kingdom, has fallen into disrepair. Sitting at the bottom of the staircase, in her nightgown and slippers with her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, is Princess Aurora.

Mulan tries to get away, but it is already too late. Aurora has heard her footsteps echoing in the cavernous space and she turns around in surprise. "Oh," she says. "What are you doing up at this hour?"

Mulan swallows uncomfortably and tries to think of a way to discretely get rid of the knapsack she is carrying. "I should ask you the same question," she says, averting her eyes.

Aurora has other things on her mind, and Mulan is spared an awkward explanation. "I can't sleep. Nightmares and all," she says, looking away.

Mulan puts down her knapsack and walks down the stairs to sit by Aurora. She can't think of anything to say.

"Do you think I'll ever be free of it?" she wonders.

Mulan looks up at her, but she is gazing straight ahead at nothing in particular. "The Curse?"

"That," says Aurora, "but so much more than that. Fearing Maleficent and facing her, and the way I still feel her everywhere, even now I know she's gone forever...loving Philip and letting him go, daring to love him again and then losing him so soon...those women from another land...losing my heart..."

Mulan is stricken keenly by the memory of literally holding Aurora's heart in her hand, and she flinches.

"I was thinking about what you said the other day on our walk," Aurora continues. "About your suitor not knowing you." Aurora sounds suddenly very sad, and Mulan mentally reproaches herself for sharing her ridiculous thoughts. Now she has made Aurora sad, when she could have kept it to herself.

"Don't worry about it, Aurora," she says.

Aurora shakes her head. "But he has also changed. Philip, I mean. It's not only me. I'm sorry...I'm not making much sense, am I?"

Mulan keeps her eyes trained steadily on the ground. She doesn't understand where Aurora is going with this.

"I meant to say we've both changed so much while we were apart."

"You and Philip?"

"Yes."

"But you still love one another," says Mulan. "In spite of the way you've changed." _Isn't that the aim of love? To love not only the person you love, but all that person will be in the future? Isn't change in the very nature of love, as it is in everything else?_ Mulan doesn't know how to put these thoughts into words.

After several minutes, Aurora does not respond, and this is enough incentive for Mulan to look up at her.

"I wonder..." says Aurora slowly. "I wonder if perhaps our love is...is from a simpler time. I wonder if its time has come and gone."

"What do you mean?" Mulan's brow furrows. _Isn't love supposed to last forever?_ her mind wonders unhelpfully.

"I remember how it felt when we were in love before...before all of this. And we fought for each other so fiercely, and now, it's..." Aurora clasps her hands and rests her forehead upon them. "It's difficult to explain," she says. "I don't mean to say I don't love him—of course I do—but it's... My convictions aren't nearly as firm as I'd like them to be. If I had to stand up to Cora or to Hook or to...gods forbid, to Maleficent again...to defend my love for him..." She pauses and swallows audibly. "I don't know if I could do it."

Mulan puts an arm around Aurora's shoulders somewhat awkwardly, but Aurora accepts her comfort gladly and leans into her shoulder as she begins to weep. "Perhaps..." Mulan begins slowly, carefully gathering her thoughts. "Perhaps all of the fighting...all of the external factors have simply distracted you from one another. Perhaps you only need to...to learn how each of you has changed. So that you know one another again."

_And I need to leave you alone to do it_, she amends privately.

"You know, Mulan," says Aurora quietly amid small sniffles, "I was just thinking...if none of this had happened, I would never have met you."

Mulan's grip on Aurora's shoulder tightens. She doesn't say anything.

"And now you're leaving," she sobs.

Mulan looks down at her and wipes away her tears with her free hand. Aurora catches Mulan's hand in hers. "It's true, then. You're leaving."

"I have to."

Aurora's eyes are wide. "Why? Do you have somewhere else to go?"

Mulan knows her expression gives her away, but if Aurora realizes it, she politely waits for Mulan's answer, anyway.

"I've done my duty," she says after a pause that lasts a few seconds too long. "You and Philip need time to rebuild your love and your kingdom. There's no place for me here."

Aurora grasps Mulan's arm tightly. "Of course there is!" she insists. "There is always a place for you here!"

Mulan is somewhat comforted by the fact that Aurora doesn't understand.

Aurora's face falls, and she leans her head against Mulan's shoulder once more. "Well," she says quietly, voice heavy with tears, "at least promise me you'll visit sometimes. I admit I can't imagine how I'll go on without you."

A small chuckle of surprise escapes Mulan's lips. "You managed well enough before."

Aurora laughs, too. "Before I knew what I was missing."

Mulan finds that something has caught in her throat, and it is suddenly difficult to swallow. "I'll miss you, too," she says simply.

They sit in silence for several minutes. Aurora's breathing is steady, and Mulan wonders whether she might have fallen asleep. But then she speaks once more, her voice little more than a distant echo. "Do you ever feel as though your entire life is defined by what you feel you must do, or by what someone else feels you must do?"

Mulan smiles mirthlessly, gazing out into the empty ballroom. "Sometimes."

"Don't you ever just want something completely for yourself?"

Mulan squeezes her eyes closed against a surprising onslaught of tears. "Yes," she whispers, like a hopeless prayer.

Aurora yawns. "Then I suppose asking you to stay just a little longer would be awfully hypocritical of me, wouldn't it?"

With her free hand, Mulan covers her mouth to stifle a sob, then quickly and efficiently swallows back her tears and wraps her other arm tighter around Aurora's shoulders. She leans over and kisses the top of Aurora's head lightly. "I'd be bound by duty to oblige you," she says.

Aurora straightens her posture and meets Mulan's eyes with her own, wide and disbelieving. "You would?" she asks hopefully.

A small smile crosses Mulan's lips and she nods. Aurora throws her arms around Mulan's shoulders and kisses her cheek.

And so, Mulan takes her knapsack back to her guest room and tucks herself into the bed, and tries to dwell on the tingling sensation in her cheek where Aurora kissed her and not on the fact that Aurora has gone back to bed with her fiancé.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Thank you for sticking with me! Life got crazy and I went from writing frequently to not writing at all. Now I'm trying to get back in the groove, and the going is pretty slow, so I'm hoping that making progress on one story will lead to faster progress on the others. Thank you so much for reading, and for your comments, favourites, and alerts! I hope you will continue to share your thoughts!

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**Chapter 3 — The Next Best Thing  
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Aurora and Philip are fighting.

They've never fought before, at least not to Mulan's knowledge. From the way they talked—Philip when Aurora was cursed and Aurora when they were searching for Philip—they were a sort of perfect match. They rarely disagreed about anything, and when they did, they calmly and rationally discussed it. When one got mad at the other, it was what anyone else would deem mild frustration, and it always seemed to quickly and quietly resolve itself without leaving so much as an angry word in its wake.

Now she can see and hear them fighting at least once a day. And when they're done, Aurora seeks out Mulan and they go for a walk together in silence, for Aurora doesn't want to talk and Mulan doesn't want to ask. She doesn't want to know to what extent their discontent is her fault.

Philip never seeks her out. Mulan wonders whether he can sense the change in her more keenly than Aurora, simply because he wasn't around while the change took hold. She wonders whether he can see the anguish and the guilt in her eyes even when she keeps her expression neutral. She wonders whether he would ask her to leave immediately if she hadn't saved his life.

As she walks side by side in silence with Aurora, she remembers with a kind of tragic amusement when Aurora was yelling at her about being in love with Philip. And maybe she was, a little bit, in a way, but she wouldn't have been able to explain it even if Aurora had been willing to listen. The quality she loved about him was only present when he spoke of his love, the one Mulan was helping him to rescue. She loved the relationship he described, the way they fought for one another so fiercely. She loved that, amid desolate circumstances, they had been forced upon one another, and instead of despising and resenting one another as well they might have, each saw in the other a kindred spirit, one who bore the same cross.

It causes Mulan physical pain to see them fighting as they never have. She has grown so attached to the hope, the enduring faithfulness that their love represents, that she cannot bear to see them apart. Which is really rather ironic, considering the treacherous thoughts that have occasionally entered her mind in the time since then.

"You might have been right," says Mulan before she has fully realized she is speaking aloud.

Aurora is stunned out of her reverie. "Hmm?"

"I might have been...I might have loved Prince Philip, at one point. Or thought I did."

Aurora's eyes take on that wide, searching quality and she tilts her head. "But?"

"What do you mean?"

"The way you say that..." says Aurora. "But it wasn't what I thought? But you stopped? But something changed?"

Mulan averts her eyes. "Well. Yes."

Aurora is silent for some time. They both stop walking. "Philip thinks I've betrayed him. I tried to explain to him what I've been feeling..."

"That you don't love him the way that you once did?"

Aurora nods at the ground.

"I imagine that wouldn't be an easy thing to hear."

"I suppose not. But we used to be able to tell each other everything."

Mulan frowns. "Isn't that easy when you've nothing bad to say about the other person?"

Aurora looks up. "I guess I see what you mean," she says, and then she begins to mirror Mulan's frown. "What about your suitor, Mulan? Did you talk often?"

Mulan turns away and begins to walk again. "No."

"Surprising," says Aurora, and the amusement in her tone causes Mulan to glance back at her in confusion.

"I fought under his command," she says, as though this ought to explain everything. Aurora continues walking to catch up with her, but she folds her arms and smirks as though she knows something. "For a time he didn't even know I was a woman."

"Yes, well, your armour leaves much to the imagination," says Aurora with a shrug.

Mulan turns away with a sigh of frustration. "If you're trying to imply that it's my fault he never knew me, you can save your breath. I'll take you to my home and you and my entire family can talk about it to your heart's content."

The feeling of Aurora's hand on her arm causes her to stop in her tracks. She isn't quite able to process so many conflicting emotions and still keep walking.

"I'm sorry," says Aurora. "That isn't what I meant at all."

"Then what did you mean?" asks Mulan, shaking her head.

Aurora averts her eyes. "I was only teasing you. I'm sorry. I don't think it's your fault that you were unhappy. You were just unhappy. And..." she looks up again, eyes wide in the way that never fails to catch Mulan off-guard. "And you were brave enough to keep searching."

Mulan pulls away. She turns to keep walking, but cannot bring herself to move forward. "It isn't always brave to leave," she says quietly. She isn't even sure Aurora hears her.

But after a moment, equally quietly, Aurora responds. "Nor is it always brave to stay."

Silence reigns between them once more, and Mulan still cannot convince herself to keep walking. She stares despondently at the path before them. Her thoughts whirl around in her head so quickly that she cannot make sense of even one of them, and so she thinks nothing and does nothing. She flinches when she feels Aurora's hands on her shoulders.

"May I ask you something?" says Aurora just over her left shoulder. The sound is too close. Aurora is too close. She's almost never been this close to Mulan since she's been home.

"What is it?"

"When you were leaving..." The warm, terrifying rush she felt when Aurora's lips touched her cheek assaults her senses once again and she shivers. Aurora doesn't notice. She wraps her arms around the bulky shoulders of Mulan's armour and rests her head there. "...where would you have gone?"

"I-" Mulan tries to respond, but the words catch in her throat. "I don't know," she manages at last.

Aurora is silent for a moment, but she does not move. "Do you ever think about those people we met? The ones from another world?"

"Of course," Mulan replies, surprised. "Don't you?" She often wonders what would have become of her if she had followed them to their world, instead of... But of course she still had a promise to keep then.

"All the time," says Aurora. "I wonder what would have happened if we had gone with them."

"But we couldn't have."

"No, not..." Aurora sighs. "Not then."

Mulan looks down at her, still resting her head on Mulan's shoulder and gazing outward at nothing. She turns around, but Aurora is reluctant to let go of Mulan's right shoulder. Instead, she holds onto Mulan's arm.

"Suppose..." Aurora begins, but then she averts her eyes. "Suppose you decided to leave again."

Mulan purses her lips. Suppose, indeed. She should have left months ago. Supposing she decided to leave has pervaded her thoughts ever since. But Aurora looks up at her again with those wide, searching eyes, and again, Mulan's mind becomes so full that it is empty.

"Would you take me with you?"


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Thank you so much for reading, favouriting, alerting, and especially for your kind words in reviews! Haven't really decided how long this is going to be...it might turn into an epic adventure because my babies are BREAKING MY HEART. Note that this chapter is short and a little less carefully edited than most things I post, so if there's anything wonky, I swear I'll fix it shortly! As always, I would love feedback!

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**Chapter 4 — Anywhere But Here**

Mulan is overtaken by two wildly disparate urges, as contradictory to one another as they are fueled by passion in and of themselves.

Half of her wants to give an enthusiastic _yes_, pack her bags, and be gone before sunset. Where they will go and what they will do is of little consequence. It will be as it was before they saved Philip, except that Philip will be alive and well and no longer in need of their assistance. They will be together, out on the road, and the world will be their oyster. They can go to Mulan's home, they can fashion a new home for themselves, they can find passage to the world from whence their strange comrades came, for all Mulan cares.

The other half of her wants to leave immediately and alone. She wants to tell Aurora to sort herself out, to remind herself what she loves about Philip, and to stop trying to leave his love behind just because they've changed. Love changes. The world changes. Things are always changing. And if two people so kind and so brave and so loving and so forgiving as Philip and Aurora cannot find it in their hearts to continue to love one another despite that change, then there is no hope for anyone else, anywhere. Isn't True Love supposed to last forever? Isn't it supposed to render all other loves obsolete by comparison?

As her mind wars with itself, Mulan stares at Aurora blankly, and she begins to wonder whether she had completely misunderstood the question. Her final answer is a breathy "What?" which does little justice to the depth and severity of her inner turmoil.

Aurora moves away from her abruptly. "Nothing. I didn't mean anything by it."

"Are you sure?"

Aurora glances back at Mulan over her shoulder, a kind of frenzy glittering in her eyes. "The first time we met, and even long before that...I wasn't looking for adventure," she said quietly. "I was so grateful to be alive and awake that I just wanted to...to go home and marry Phillip and settle down and, I don't know, try to avoid ever running into any sort of trouble ever again?" She shrugged awkwardly. "But I fear this life isn't for me. Maybe I've changed, but maybe it never was."

She returns to Mulan and grasps her by the arms. "Suppose we went looking for adventure? Together...you and I?"

Mulan's thoughts come in short bursts of nonsense, and they tumble from her lips in a similar manner. "But-But Phillip. And the kingdom. You have duties, responsibilities...your people need you. And Phillip. And what would you-"

"Mulan," Aurora gives Mulan's arms a little squeeze, which silences her immediately. "There's nothing for me to do here. I spend all of my time just thinking about all the things that feel wrong in my life. But why should I do that if there's something I can do about it? And Phillip..." she frowned for a second, "Phillip will be just fine without me. What do you say?"

Mulan's eyes flicker from Aurora's hands on her arms back up to those shining doe eyes. She is stricken for the first time in many months by how young Aurora is. And it's not that Mulan is precisely old, but she hasn't had the freedom or the security to follow her childlike whims in a very long time. She's never really thought of herself as someone who was allowed to search for adventure.

And what a mad idea. To simply leave, with only the vague idea that they are going Somewhere to do Something? It is ridiculous. Whatever Aurora thinks, she has a duty to her people, or at least, what remains of them. They adore their Princess of the Dawn. She boosts their morale simply by existing. And Mulan has a duty to leave Aurora alone with her true love and to go about her merry way to...

What? Go Somewhere and do Something?

But it would be profoundly selfish to take Aurora along with her. Mulan would be taking the Princess away from her adoring people and her adoring lover. Perhaps she has had more life experience than Aurora has, but what is the use of that if she cannot draw upon it to talk Aurora out of such a wild fancy?

"Aurora..." she begins slowly. "Don't you think you'll regret just...running away...from your life?"

Aurora lets go of Mulan's arms and plants her hands in fists on her hips. "Tell me you don't want me to come with you," she says stiffly. "It's as simple as that."

"No!" Mulan cries before she can stop herself. "No," she says again, more calmly. "It isn't that..."

"Then what's holding you back?" Aurora throws up her hands. "You can't honestly pretend to be worried about _my_ responsibilities, Mulan."

Mulan doesn't know how Aurora can be so foolish. Who would get, if not perhaps everything she wanted, a substantial amount more than most people ever experienced-her life, her health, her freedom, her true love...and...and...and spit in the face of as happy an ending as they came? Who would somehow miraculously manage to thwart some of the most powerful forces of magic ever known to this land, escape without so much as a scratch and only unpleasant dreams as a reminder of the peril she'd faced, and instead of counting her lucky stars, go in search of what would very likely entail more danger? New dangers, even! The likes of which they can't even imagine!

But Mulan says none of this. A small and extremely guilty part of her focuses on Aurora's question instead of the many logical reasons she should ignore it. _What's holding you back?_

My life isn't about finding adventure, she wants to say. But what is it about? She can't fool herself into thinking she's only doing her duty by being here when she should have left long ago. She couldn't love Shang and she can't have the love she both longs for and doesn't. She left home to find out who she was, and so far she has made absolutely no progress in that regard. Why shouldn't she make one wild, mad decision? Why shouldn't she go on an adventure? Why can't she want something for herself, just this once?

Mulan realizes with a start that the only thing holding her back is herself.

Aurora is still staring at her intently, expression a strange combination of frustration and anticipation. Mulan meets her eyes and swallows every bit of common sense she has.

"Suppose I said yes," she says slowly, but she doesn't get any further.

"Oh, thank you!" Aurora has already launched herself at Mulan. She throws her arms around Mulan's neck and kisses her cheek, murmuring _thank you, thank you, thank you_ over and over again into her shoulder.

Mulan wants to protest-to emphasize the _suppose _and the lingering uncertainty in her sentence-but she no longer has the heart.

So, instead of suppose and maybe and would, she asks, "Where will we go?"

Aurora pulls away just enough to meet Mulan's eyes. Her smile is brighter than Mulan has seen it in a long time, but her eyes are shining with unshed tears. "Anywhere!" she breathes. "Everywhere!"

And in spite of herself, Mulan dares to return Aurora's smile. In that moment, Mulan looks into Aurora's eyes and sees a world full of possibilities.


End file.
